Thursday, 13 March 2014

Ronnie Spector: Beyond the Beehive at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

/ The Ronettes in 1964: Nedra, Ronnie and Estelle /
1960s girl group survivor (and definitive hair hopper role model) Ronnie
Spector brought her Beyond the Beehive revue to London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
on Sunday (9 March 2014). I’d never seen the former Ronettes front-woman
perform before, so I leapt at the chance.

While it was bound to be fascinating, I went with lowered expectations:
I remembered reading a review of her London appearance in 2008, where an apparently
ailing Spector was forced to sing while seated throughout and her voice was reportedly
shot. It’s gratifying to report, then, that 70-year old Spector (introduced as “the
rose from Spanish Harlem”) was a torrent of energy and raw emotion and on majestic
and miraculously rejuvenated form. In brief: mondo teased haystack of bouffant hair, mondo cleavage and most importantly – mondo raspy
soaring heartbreaking voice.

The show alternated between songs (Spector’s powerful backing
band nicely evoked her 1960s records’ signature lush wall of sound) and audiovisual
autobiographical segments. During the latter, Spector reminisced about her
tumultuous marriage with deranged musical genius Phil Spector (unsurprisingly,
tales of her vengeful ex-husband – the man who made her and then did his
damnedest to break her – dominated), her years with the Ronettes, legal woes
and her chronically thwarted solo career (Spector is pop’s ultimate heartbreak
kid), illustrated with slideshows and videos projected on a giant screen behind
her. If you've read Spector’s autobiography Be My Baby you’re probably familiar
with many of her anws and videos
projected on a screen behind her. career
(Spector is pop'ulto be fascinatecdotes. But the book came out in the
early nineties: since then, Phil Spector has been imprisoned for murder, the Ronettes
were belatedly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and co-Ronette
(and Ronnie’s sister) Estelle died.

/ Beehive with a Voice: Ronnie Spector photographed by Dennis Hopper (yes, that Dennis Hopper) in the 1960s, while husband/producer Phil Spector glowers in the background /

Opening with “Walking in the Rain”, the musical part of the
night was pretty damn sublime. The Ronettes’ best-loved hits “Be My Baby” and
“Baby I Love You” were reserved for the encore. Spector slayed me when she sang
The Ramones’ “She Talks to Rainbows” (Joey Ramone was her biggest champion. The
punks always got her). Then she made me
cry with “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory” by Johnny Thunders. Mostly
for Spector's wrenching interpretation, but also the bittersweet visual accompaniment:
grainy old Super 8 home movies of the very young Ronettes cavorting and
laughing, so beautiful and full of hope.

Hearing her tear through her back catalogue made me think
about the lineage
of Ronnie Spector's yearning urgent voice: it connects 1950s doo wop (she’s
cited Frankie Lymon of The Teenagers as her primary influence) to 1960s girl
groups to the Beach Boys (Brian Wilson wrote “Don't Worry Baby” with her in
mind; Phil Spector refused to let the Ronettes record it) to Johnny Thunders, The
Ramones, Blondie and Jesus and Mary Chain (the “Be My Baby” drum beat), to the
girlish helium coo of early Madonna (who said at the beginning of her career,
“I like to look the way Ronnie Spector sounded: sexy, hungry, totally trashy”)
and Holly Golightly and Amy Winehouse (for one of her encores Ronnie sang a
heartfelt "Back to Black", probably more beautifully than Winehouse
herself usually managed). Ronnie Spector’s (white frosted) lipstick traces are all over pop
history. It was wonderful to see the present-day quintessential 1960s bad girl transformed
into an exultant, wise and serene earth mother, exuding joie de vivre.

/ Photography was forbidden at the concert, but my friend Vivien managed to snatch this /